I have taken the public version of the Band Descriptors, as well as the
version that examiners are given, and added my personal interpretations of
what these descriptors mean. (The public version is about 95% the same as
the examiners' version.) I have also used the knowledge that I gained from
the examiner training, which mostly consisted of studying representative
examples of different Band levels in tape recordings and/or videos.

Most current or former examiners would agree with most of what I have
written for this detailed description of the band descriptors but there
might be some specific points where we disagree slightly. For example, there
might be some disagreement on the
specific grammar points that I have listed for Band 5 and Band 6, which are mostly
my personal interpretation of what these two Bands represent. As well as
that, there might be slight disagreement about the
numbers I use for the number of grammar errors.
However, when the different points or items are averaged out, most examiners
would agree with my descriptions here.

Notes for Coherence

"Coherence" refers to the degree of understandability of
several ideas that are presented together; "cohesion" refers
to the linkage of the ideas. For long or detailed utterances, cohesion is
one of the most important ways to achieve good coherence.

For Coherence, the examiner is not allowed to give a sub-score of 6
or more if the candidate does not show knowledge of a range of connective
words and phrases (to show connection between sentences or ideas, and
usually placed at the beginning of sentences).

For the
"Fluency and Coherence" sub-score, the examiner needs to assess a sub-score
for each of Fluency and Coherence. If the two sub-scores are different, the
lower of the two scores is the final sub-score. For example, sometimes a
candidate gets
5 for the Fluency and Coherence sub-score even when he or she is as fluent as a Band 6 or
even a Band 7 candidate. She usually fails to qualify for a 6 for this
sub-score because she does not show a wide enough knowledge of connective
phrases.

To repeat: If a
candidate is a 7 for fluency but only a 5 for
coherence (as shown by a limited usage of connectives), then that candidate
gets a score of 5 for this sub-score, not the average of 7 and 5, which is
6. The sub-score here is the highest score that 'satisfies' both fluency and coherence
– a score of 6 would satisfy the description of this candidate's fluency but
would not satisfy a description of this candidate's coherence.

(Remember,
“fluency” just refers to the flow of words from the mouth, i.e., the
continuity and speed of this flow. But coherence is largely based on the
choice of language spoken – mostly the words and phrases that are used to
connect ideas so that ‘the ideas flow’.)

Notes for Vocabulary

"Idiomatic usage" refers mostly to phrasal verbs and other
examples of idiomatic language, not proverbs or slang.

"Style" refers to the formality of the language, usually
the formality of the vocabulary.

"Collocation" refers to commonly used word combinations.
For example, in English we say, "heavy rain" but, "strong wind".

Notes for Pronunciation

"Accent" is the overall sound of a person's speech. It is
the sum of the individual pronunciations of the vowels, consonants,
diphthongs and other speech sounds of a person. When speaking about the
accent of a person's English, we refer to it in terms of what English
speaking country's accent it sounds like. There are two main accents in
"Standard English" (i.e., two main varieties of pronunciation): the accent
of English as spoken in southern England and the accent of English as spoken
in most parts of the U.S.A. Both are equally acceptable in the IELTS test.
But other national or regional English accents are also equally acceptable,
for example: the Australian accent, the New Zealand accent, the Canadian
accent, the South African accent, the accent from Northern England, the
accent from Scotland, the accent from Ireland and the accent from the
southern states of the U.S.A.

This creates a problem for the IELTS test. For example, if you study
English in New Zealand for a year or two, you will start to speak English
like a New Zealander. If you then come back to do the IELTS test in Beijing,
it is possible that your examiner in Beijing is not used to the New Zealand
accent and will have problems understanding you. But if you did the IELTS
test in New Zealand, your New Zealand examiner would probably think you were
speaking very naturally.

Although it is probably preferable to speak English using purely one
accent, I think it is also acceptable if you speak English in a blend
of two accents, as long as you sound like you have been mainly
influenced by one accent and as long as this blend is a gradual
blend, not a strongly contrasting mixture of different accents. For example,
there are many native English speakers who speak mostly British English but
who have been influenced by American English because they have
lived in the U.S. for many years, and vice-versa. A mixture of accents like
that is called, "international English".

"Sentence stress" is the stress on one particular word (or
more than one word) in a sentence. I have noticed that, for Chinese people,
most errors in sentence stress are simply errors when speaking noun+ noun or
adjective +noun combinations. One of the two words in these combinations is
stressed more than the other. Probably this situation is the same for all
learners of English, not just Chinese people. Another common sentence stress
error among Chinese people is to stress the last word in a sentence when
that word is a pronoun that is not stressed by a native English speaker. For
example, "He gave it to me ", if spoken with the stress on the
word "me" means that he gave it to me, not someone else. This is a situation
of contrast. But if there is no contrast meant, the word "gave" would be the
word that is stressed in that sentence.

"Word stress" is the stress on one particular syllable in
a multi-syllable word.

"Intonation" is the rise or fall in the tone of an
utterance. This is closely related to sentence stress but is not always the
same. Different nationalities of English speakers tend to have a few
differences in their use of intonation.

At some time in the future I will include sound recordings on this
website to illustrate examples of sentence stress and intonation. One
important example of sentence stress is the stress on noun + noun or
adjective + noun combinations. Information on this can be found here.

The meaning of, "chunking" is included below. I am
indebted to Matt Clark for the information shown below, which is about the
changes to the Pronunciation sub-score that came into effect on August 1,
2008. (Although Matt Clark might not have intended his notes to be placed on
the internet, the notes below were found at
http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_602badbd0100dwe1.html)

-----------------------------------------------------

From Matt Clark

With effect from August 1st 2008, the
marking scale for pronunciation will change in all
IELTSspeaking tests worldwide.
Examiners will now be able to award band scores 1-9 instead of the older
system of 2-4-6-8.

Candidate’s pronunciation will be marked using the same
criteria as in the previous system, but for the higher scores (7-8-9) there
are one or two areas that have become more emphasized.

The lower scores (2-4)

The lower scores will continue to focus on “persistent”
or “fossilized” pronunciation problems. These include consistent
mispronunciation of certain sounds, such as “r” “l” and “th”.
If a candidate is continually mispronouncing the same sounds throughout the
test the examiner will not be able to award a score of 6.

Another key feature of the lower scores is a lack of
overall intelligibility of “utterances” or sentence parts. If the examiner
has difficulty in understanding the general message of a sentence or
sentence-part within
many answers then a lower score will be awarded. An effective way for
candidates to “self-diagnose” their intelligibility is to record themselves
delivering answers (not reading) and then to playback their answers and ask
a friend or classmate if they can understand everything that was said.

The mid-range scores (5-6)

The band scores 5 and 6 in the new system will be
awarded when a candidate can successfully replicate the sounds of English on
“word-level” and
attempt to produce sentence stress and intonation. The good news for
candidates is that the intonation and sentence stress
do not to be correct in every “utterance”.

The key to scoring 6 in pronunciation is to speak
English clearly enough to be understood throughout. There is no need to
reproduce a native-speaker accent (British, American, and Australian) in
this band score. Candidates with a Chinese accent can easily score 6 in this
section.

The higher scores (7+)

The introduction of the band score 7 for pronunciation
is probably the most important development in recent years in the IELTS
test. Previously many candidates could get close to an overall 7.0 in
speaking but their pronunciation score (usually 6) would reduce the overall
score to either 6.0 or 6.5. The pronunciation score of 7 has made it easier
to achieve an overall7 in Speaking.

What is needed for a pronunciation 7?

Candidates will be awarded a 7 if they fulfill the
following criteria.

The features listed in the band descriptor for 7 are
quite self-explanatory with the exception of “chunking” therefore some
more detail is provided below.

What is Chunking?

Chunking is actually quite a new “label” or “buzzword”
in the EFL world and for many experienced EFL teachers and even for IELTS
examiners it is something which is difficult to accurately define.

When speech is produced by native speakers the words
are not pronounced individually; groups of words (within an utterance) are
pushed together into “multi-word chunks”. An ability to demonstrate this
skill is required for a band 7.

These “word groups” are not random; there are rules as
to which words should be “chunked” together. Unfortunately, as with many
features of English pronunciation, these rules are somewhat “fuzzy”.

As a general guideline most “sentence fillers” or
“connecting phrases” should be chunked into a “multi-word group”. Look at
the following examples.

“and all of those kinds of things”

“and stuff like that”

“I’m not really sure but..”

“a lot of people think that…”

“maybe it’s something to do with…”

“I guess that it could be because…”

These phrases should be pronounced as one flowing sound
with little or no audible gap between words. This skill becomes more obvious
to the listener (or examiner) when the “word chunks” are surrounded by
examples of speed or volume variation in important parts of the message.

“Well I guess that in many ways,
nowadays learning a language is quite important, and the main reason
would probably be that it can help you get a job, it can make your
more aware of other cultures and stuff like that”.

The underlined phrases in the example above should be
“chunked” together in a “word-group”. Also it becomes easier to see that the
“message” parts of the example should contain variations in speed and volume
to emphasize important meaning.

A candidate who can demonstrate some ability to chunk
will be awarded a 7. When the chunking becomes more natural and consistently
correct an 8 may be awarded (if the other criteria are met).